{"id":85651,"date":"2013-05-05T01:39:02","date_gmt":"2013-05-04T20:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=85651"},"modified":"2013-05-07T12:22:54","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T06:52:54","slug":"the-garrisoning-of-the-indian-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-garrisoning-of-the-indian-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"The Garrisoning Of The Indian Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

A leaked draft MoU between the governments of the USA and the Maldives indicates that plans are afoot to set up a US military base in the Indian Ocean.\u00a0 \u00a0While the US Embassy in Colombo has pooh-poohed the said document as a \u2018Status of Forces Agreement\u2019 (SOFA) of the kind that exists with respect to some 100 other countries, and that there is no intention of \u2018setting up a military base\u2019, the wording is more than adequate to sanction such designs at any given moment.\u00a0 The document, if signed, would allow arms bearing troops and the bringing in unspecified amounts of unspecified material, in effect everything that makes a \u2018military base\u2019 apart from the name; another critical piece of Obama\u2019s \u2018Asian Pivot\u2019 strategy.<\/p>\n

Maldivians should do what is in their best interest of course and by the same token if this latest move in the USA\u2019s pretty consistent and relentless strategy of garrisoning the planet is seen as a threat, then other countries (like Sri Lanka) must likewise decide what\u2019s best in their national interest.<\/p>\n

In any event, Sri Lanka can but object in word but that\u2019s about it. Sri Lanka doesn\u2019t have the guns or the bucks to do much more.\u00a0 India can, but probably won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

As of now, what is proposed is a \u2018Llily pad\u2019; small, secretive, inaccessible facilities with limited troop presence, Spartan amenities and prepositioned weaponry, one of over 50 set up by the USA since 2000, from Djibouti to Hondurus, Mauritania to the Cocos Islands.\u00a0 Lily pads are easily transformed into comprehensive and pivotal military bases, like the approximately 1000 such US facilities in 150 countries, complementing of course the 11 aircraft career task forces (floating bases).<\/p>\n

It all sits well with the strategic shift from full-scale invasion to special operations, proxy armies, militarization of spying and intelligence, drones, cyber-attacks and \u2018joint operations\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 Add to this long-range air and naval power; humanitarian and disaster relief missions that serve military intelligence, patrolling and \u2018hearts and minds\u2019 operations, and we have a global thug whose declining economic power can be swiftly mitigated by outright theft by way of sanctified resource extraction and market-fixing.\u00a0 All in the name of democracy, civilization, human rights and good governance, of course and yes, the media does the consent-manufacturing exercise well.<\/p>\n

For decades now, the USA has tried to get a foothold in the Indian Ocean that\u2019s a bit larger than Diego Garcia.\u00a0 Sri Lanka has a love-hate relationship with the USA, with the \u2018love\u2019 part probably being insignificant to wrest from the political leadership a Sri Lankan version of the Maldivian SOFA comfortable enough for the US Marines to recline upon.\u00a0 Perhaps this explains the \u2018hate\u2019 part evidenced by US moves in the UNHRC against Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

On the other hand a US-Maldive SOFA can be a lily pad from which something more potent than frogs can jump out, if deemed necessary.\u00a0\u00a0 India is a strategic partner and is too complex a political riddle to untangle, a necessary precondition for setting up military bases in that country.\u00a0 Given global political realities, there is no way that the US would move in on the Maldives without the blessings of Manmohan Singh<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The USA will do what\u2019s in its best interest.\u00a0 If invasion is necessary, we can expect invasion.\u00a0 It is far more cost-effective to purchase submission, with bucks or threats.\u00a0 If these don\u2019t work then come the guns, but even guns work better when there are \u2018friendly forces\u2019 within the country.\u00a0 This is why there is a thing called \u2018espionage\u2019. This is why the US Embassy\u2019s politicking must be checked and all movements of Embassy and other staff be closely monitored.\u00a0 Spies can operate in I\/NGOs, disguise themselves as journalists or students like the \u2018BBC\u2019 team that went to North Korea, and often come dressed in local skin with local name.<\/p>\n

The Government cannot do it alone. The citizenry must be vigilant too. Only the Government can obtain the citizen\u2019s support but only a government that has the trust of the citizen can do so.\u00a0 The trust-gap is widening.\u00a0 It amounts to a window-of-opportunity for intervention.\u00a0 Regime-haters might salivate, but they are part of the citizenry that will have to pay the heavy price of intervention and accompanying anarchy.\u00a0 \u00a0It is subjugation and not the source or name or national identity of the subjugator that counts.\u00a0 Either way, there\u2019s a nation that is under threat.\u00a0 In the end, palming necessary battles to outsiders never bring relief.\u00a0 We have to fight our battles by ourselves and part of that battle is to keep outsiders outside.\u00a0 Vigilance is called for.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":78746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Garrisoning Of The Indian Ocean - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-garrisoning-of-the-indian-ocean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Garrisoning Of The Indian Ocean - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-garrisoning-of-the-indian-ocean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-04T20:09:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-07T06:52:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"923\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1112\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-garrisoning-of-the-indian-ocean\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-garrisoning-of-the-indian-ocean\/\",\"name\":\"The Garrisoning Of The Indian Ocean - 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